The present invention pertains to devices for moving patients and, more particularly, to devices that use air to transfer a patient.
Non-ambulatory patients in a patient facility, such as a hospital or a nursing home, present substantial challenges when such patients must be moved from one location to another. A patient may, for example, need to be moved from a hospital bed to a stretcher and then from the stretcher to a treatment location, such as a surgical table in an operating room. Following treatment, the reverse patient handling sequence may occur; i.e.: the patient is moved from the surgical table, which remains in the operating room, to a stretcher which travels to the patient's hospital room, and then from the stretcher back onto the bed in the hospital room.
In some situations it is preferable that a patient be handled in a manner that minimizes handling or jostling of the patient, for example, in the case of a patient being returned to a hospital room following surgery. The same challenge of moving a patient with minimum handling exists in non-surgical settings as well. The bariatric patient is a prime and very common example. When such a patient is obese, transfers present difficulties for both the patient and the care facility staff. While obese patients represent an extreme end of the spectrum, it should be understood that making any transfer, lateral or otherwise, of any patient or adjustment to a patient's position can induce stress and/or strain and potential injury to a caregiver.
A drawback to some current patient handling procedures, such as sliding the patient across the patient support surface, is that, even with the best intentioned and caring of staff, the patient very often suffers substantial discomfort. The simple act of sliding a patient over a flat surface can be very painful to a patient who has had surgical incisions that are not yet healed, for example, or for patients who have skin lesions or ulcers.
An attempt has been made to overcome the above described problems by the use of an air mattress or pallet onto which the patient is placed while in bed and which is then placed onto a stretcher. A problem common to most of such devices, however, is that invariably the air mattress has the general characteristic of a balloon in the sense that when one area is indented another remote area will bulge. Further, they tend to provide little lateral stability. If, for example, a stretcher carrying an obese person makes a sharp turn during a trip to or from a treatment location, such an obese person may tend to roll or shift laterally toward the edge of the mattress, which could result in a patient rolling off the mattress.
Further, these mattresses require a large volume of air and flow rate to keep them inflated and operational. They also take time to fill and to become operational given their large volumes. Hence, to speed up the process the blowers that inflate the mattresses tend to be large and produce a lot of noise and also another undesirable by-product—heat. If the air into the mattress is too warm, the patient can become uncomfortable. These air pallets also tend to be bulky and may create a cleaning challenge because if body fluids (liquids) are released and flow under the mattress the holes in the bottom of the mattress will allow the liquid to flow into the mattress—likely requiring the disposal of the mattress.
Therefore there is a need for a new patient transfer device that facilitates the movement of a patient with minimal jostling of the patient and also that provides enhanced infection control. Further, a more compact transfer device is desirable that does not require the same volume of air or flow rate associated with prior art air bearing pallets, thus reducing the undesirable by-products of heat and noise that is associated with prior art air bearing pallets.